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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27380479">Let's Taco 'Bout Love</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/charmandu/pseuds/charmandu'>charmandu</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Wanna One (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Confrontations, Halloween, It was funny in my head and then it went wonk wonk, M/M, Semi-cringe semi-serious, ghost - Freeform, ghosting, halloween party</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 18:29:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,907</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27380479</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/charmandu/pseuds/charmandu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Jaehwan ghosted Minhyun after a week of going out. They see each other after months, accidentally, through a taxi-share. Confrontation ensues.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hwang Minhyun/Kim Jaehwan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Let's Taco 'Bout Love</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kemi/gifts">Kemi</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Welcome to charmandu's annual halloween fic! This is my entry for this year. Lol.</p><p>Thank you, I guess, for still checking out the MinHwan tag. The world is ending and yet you're still here. </p><p>Initial prompt: Ghosting, which means, ending a personal relationship with someone by suddenly and without explanation withdrawing from all communication<br/>Treatment from Kemi's prompt: If you’re not scared, then you’re not taking a chance. If you’re not taking a chance, then what the hell are we doing anyway?<br/>Title from Let's Talk About Love by Nu'est, also got inspired from Call Me Back</p><p>More notes:<br/>- This is very out of character. I tried to experiment and this happened lol. Also, it made me realize that I'm really not used to writing in Jaehwan's POV.<br/>- I tried to be funny but it turned out to be angsty idk why haha. My initial idea was to make it very cringeyyy but nope, that did not happen<br/>- Forgive me for errors, I wrote this in class lol</p><p>Also for costume references: https://twitter.com/apeachxxx101/status/1295986272578572288?s=20</p><p> </p><p>This is for you Kemi, you wonderful human being. :)  Thank you for the prompt!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jaehwan wakes up to a beautiful Halloween day. It's Saturday, he just finished his midterms, and he has everything today right on schedule. </p><p>He's good at this--planning and keeping up to the plan. He gets up from the warm bed after snoozing his accurately timed alarm twice from 6.28 a.m. (because he has to start his day by 6:30), and he starts cooking grilled cheese for breakfast after washing his face and stretching his body. His morning routine ends before 7:00 a.m., the time when he goes for his morning run. </p><p>His day goes well and fast. All his remaining tasks and errands for the week were completed before 4:00 p.m., giving him the time to watch two episodes of Demon Slayer, and to prepare early for the Halloween party that evening. He even took a seven-minute nap. </p><p>He arrived 30-minutes late to the costume party organized by his friend Sungwoon, but despite the little adjustment in his schedule, the night still went well. He saw familiar faces and met new ones. He complimented a lot of impressive costumes. The most remarkable one was a girl who made herself appear to be sitting on a roller coaster seat--how she made it, Jaehwan couldn’t figure out. So he just went ‘wow’ on her a few times. </p><p>Jaehwan doesn’t want to talk about his costume, but if you’ll ask his honest opinion, he’d tell you that he’s still bummed out by the fact that his friends actually requested him not to cosplay the singers he admires. So this year, he comes as a… mustard bottle. Yes, complete with the nozzle hat. It didn’t garner as much attention as he expected it to, especially as some of them dressed as food too--Daehwi, particularly, looked cute in his “grapes” ensemble, not to mention the fun they had in trying to pop the balloons inside the cloth of the 'grapes'. </p><p>The night, all in all, was fun and chaotic; and Jaehwan is happy to finally have enough time to just laze around and socialize. He intentionally left his Sunday free because he knows he’ll need time to recover from all the alcohol he drank and the dancing he did. </p><p>At four in the morning, he successfully booked a taxi-share. Jaehwan, living in the northern part of the city, has always been used to his wallet being damaged due to the distance and fares, but because of a recent purchase (see: a new amplifier), he can’t really take a solo ride home. Either that, or he’ll eat instant noodles the whole week. Though getting a cab on his own seemed so attractive given his current state of being too sleepy, exhausted, and being way past drunk (which is worse than actually being drunk by the way, because you feel <em>more</em> than you should), he resisted the comfort of an Uber all to himself. </p><p>It was a choice for him to go home even at this time. Some of the guests remained sleeping on the couch, some on the floor. But Jaehwan wants the comfort of his own bed, and to at least wash up before sleeping. </p><p>As Jaehwan waits for the ride in front of Sungwoon’s place, he debates in his head whether he should remove his mustard nozzle hat. Though the thought seemed more reasonable, especially since his friends won’t police him anymore from taking it off, the image from hours ago stopped him--how they were all laughing at each other, that they were all “mature” enough to stand through the whole night in their own costumes. He remembers the fun of how long it took when Woojin encouraged them to film Jaehwan’s head and nozzle hat to make it appear like he’s putting mustard on Daniel, who by the way, was dressed as a hotdog sandwich. It was tons of fun, and he’ll probably watch the video ten times more after he wakes up later before he goes to mass, just for the laughs. </p><p>It hasn’t been ten minutes of waiting since a black sedan stopped in front of him. It was his ride. Jaehwan sees that the driver of the Uber reached above to open the light inside so Jaehwan can see well. At the same time, he notices that someone is already sitting on the back seat. It was a detail he didn’t notice when he was booking in the app. Jaehwan opens the door and scoots in carefully. He says good morning to the driver and to the man beside him. When Jaehwan settles, he finds himself smiling since the man beside him is also wearing a halloween costume--he’s dressed as a taco. </p><p>A few minutes in and Jaehwan’s dizziness starts to kick in. He feels nauseous and tired and sleepy and he just wants to lay down. But he’s in a cab… with someone… and his home is still so far away. It will take him maybe an hour, if there are no more cars on the road. </p><p>In the middle of Jaehwan’s musings (and effort not to puke), the other passenger beside him speaks. “Look who’s back from the dead." </p><p>Jaehwan lets out a confused noise, something that the other passenger understood. </p><p>“Yes, I’m talking to you.” </p><p>Jaehwan looks on his left as the car slows down for a stop light. The red of the traffic light shines on the other passenger’s face and it lags on Jaehwan who the other man was. Jaehwan blinks once more, two more times, and three more times. And finally, he knows who he is. How could he have forgotten this handsome face?</p><p>The man beside him opens his mouth again. “So, you’re alive?”</p><p>Jaehwan almost gawks. The only word that came out from his mouth was, “Oh, fuck.”</p><p>“Yes, oh fuck. I thought you died when you blocked me. Or maybe I thought I killed you in my head." The other person aggressively confirms in a passive voice. His eyes glint as he looks at Jaehwan, hands perfectly settled on his own lap. His eyebrows are formed like they're judging Jaehwan yet his eyes almost look hurt. Jaehwan’s post-drunk mind couldn’t really comprehend but the aura of sincerity is there. </p><p>Jaehwan doesn’t curse a lot (his mom will be mad), but damn this moment is just making his mind short-circuit. “How long--” </p><p>The other man doesn’t allow him to finish his sentence. “Six months, three weeks." Minhyun clicks his tongue. "Well, four weeks, if you’re asking when we started going out, three if you’re asking when the last time was since you last responded to me.”</p><p>“Oops.” Jaehwan childishly exhales unintentionally.</p><p>“Oops? Fucking oops?” The annoyance in the other’s voice becomes too apparent when he grunts. </p><p>This time, the driver of the Uber-share looks at the rear-view mirror to confirm that nothing bad is happening--well, there is something bad happening. The driver just couldn’t tell <em> how </em>bad. The driver caught Jaehwan’s eyes and Jaehwan flashed a forced smile to assure him. He knows it didn’t do anything to persuade him but at least he tried, right?</p><p>Jaehwan feels resigned. He’s probing on the fact that he’s actually in this taxi with <em> him, </em>and that he actually convinced himself not to book a solo ride home. The image of a silent ride home and eating instant noodles for a week seems too beautiful but too far now. </p><p>He clears his throat with the hopes of it clearing his head too: “Minhyun, I--”</p><p>He stops. He cannot find the words to say. The yellow lights of the street makes him feel sentimental, yet there is nothing sentimental in what he did to the other. If there’s a word to describe his decision--it’s ‘heartless’. </p><p>Jaehwan’s silence is a mixture of him reflecting on what he did to Minhyun and wishing that he wouldn’t really puke. Not now. Not in this situation.</p><p>How long is this ride again?</p><p>“What I did…” Jaehwan starts without the aim of finishing it. Minhyun stares at him, and though Jaehwan cannot see, he feels the other’s rage burning in his skin. </p><p>Minhyun aids him. “What you did… is that you went out with me for a week. Made me feel special and loved. And disappeared after, without any warnings, without any goodbyes, without any explanations.” </p><p>“I gho--”</p><p>“Yes, you fucking ghosted me. Happy fucking halloween.” </p><p>This time, it was Minhyun who caught the driver’s eyes on him through the rearview mirror. He smiles apologetically to reassure him that everything’s under control. Well, not really, as his emotions cannot be hidden by just a mere smile. </p><p>What Jaehwan did… is now coming back to him. Thanks to his slow, slow brain at half past 4 a.m. Jaehwan now remembers messaging Minhyun’s alt-Twitter account--an account famous because of his rule--they’ll date for a week, and that’s about it. Jaehwan messaged him out of curiosity and curiosity is what killed him, for sure. </p><p>The rules were easy--one week of dating, nothing more, nothing less. No pictures. No personal contacts. They’d communicate via a private chat room. </p><p>In these terms, it seemed like a win-win. It was cuffing season that time--the season where everyone is just <em> not </em>single. Everybody is walking while holding hands or while one is clinging on the other. In all honesty, Jaehwan messaged Minhyun’s account so he doesn’t feel left out--he wanted to try being ‘in’ in the season and well, honestly, he wants to try if he’ll actually feel something or his life is too planned out by him that his heart grew tough and hard to penetrate. </p><p>As you may have guessed, Jaehwan didn’t get back to Minhyun after their one-week contract and that… is what Minhyun is mad about. Though, in Jaehwan’s defense, there wasn’t anything stating that they should send an evaluation report or something, right? Choosing to have a full-stop after the contract was just reasonable. So what is Minhyun mad about?</p><p>Minhyun’s voice is softer as he says, “I guess, I just needed an explanation on why.” </p><p>Jaehwan looks at him to confirm if he’s pouting--he is. And perhaps he begins to feel more about this too. <em> Fucking alcohol.  </em></p><p>“You’ve dated tons of people on a weekly basis. That’s even in your bio: one-week dates O-N-L-Y. Shouldn’t you have known that your contract says one week? Only one week. I don’t get why you’re emotional over this. You do this often, it’s like your past time. Our contract says it clearly.” </p><p>Minhyun sniffs. “That’s… understandable. Okay.” </p><p>Silence enveloped the car. </p><p>“Sorry, I ghosted you.” Jaehwan says in a low voice, head facing away from the other. The street lights illuminate his face from block to block, the feeling of nausea almost gone. He breathes in slowly, expecting the slight moisty air of dawn, not realizing that the window is closed.</p><p>Perhaps he often doesn’t see what’s immediately in front of him.</p><p>Jaehwan feels a hand snake up to his left hand. Their fingers intertwine and it hurts for Jaehwan to know that they’ve done this so naturally in the past, even if it was just within the bounds of time, within the bounds of a contract. When Jaehwan went through the plan to test out if he could still feel deep emotions, he did not assume that it would be that genuine. </p><p>Minhyun speaks what felt like an ultimatum. There is a fusion of anger and lonesome in his gaze and in his voice. Jaehwan couldn’t dare get his eyes off of him. “Other than the contract, do you have any other reasons why? You don’t have to answer if you’re not comfortable. But know that it would mean something if you do.” The question sounds very directive.</p><p>Jaehwan feels like Minhyun knows the answer to this. It’s just a matter of provocation. If he stays quiet, he can just forget that this night happened--that they saw each other again after six months, three weeks, and five days (yes he’s also counting). If he confirms what he’s thinking, then what are they going to do about it? </p><p>“I was scared.” Jaehwan lets go.</p><p>“You ghosted me because you were afraid. That’s highly ironic…”</p><p>The sarcasm and the unwelcomed confidence in Minhyun’s voice brings Jaehwan back to his anxiety. “I was scared. God, I am scared!” Jaehwan’s voice is a bit louder now as hesitation creeps in. “That it’s only been a few days but it all felt real, to me, at least. It was all too fast! I am used to having everything in my life calculated but you--you were beyond the maths I could imagine. I was scared because I know you’ve had those one-week dates in so long and there is no way I could’ve been an inch more interesting than the others you’ve dated. Hell, don’t you even get tired of that?” </p><p>“I’m tired. That’s correct.” Minhyun sighs as he tightens his hold on Jaehwan’s hand. “So I stopped taking in requests after you.”</p><p>Jaehwan looks at him in confusion.</p><p>“You see, I was scared too. Of…” Minhyun pauses. “Of your ghost.”</p><p>Jaehwan misreads the situation. He takes his hand off of him, because it’s giving him hope. Hope he never should have had. It was there for a while but everything is getting clearer now. </p><p>“Minhyun, don’t worry about me. I’m okay. I’m sure the next ones you’ll date will have a better grasp of the contract they sign. You don’t have to take responsibility for my feelings. I'm sorry if my feelings were too apparent during our week, like I was a book you easily read. You can go on and do what you always do. I’m sorry for ruining your pastime.” </p><p>In some sense, Jaehwan knows the reality in the back of his mind: he’s just another statistic to Minhyun. Which, to him, is a good thing because he doesn’t usually do things out of plan. The plan was to go out with him for a week and that’s it. Right? It was uncharacteristic of him to even think about the possibility of ‘them’ in the future so he immediately cut everything off. For the best. </p><p>The atmosphere went quiet again. He’s not sure where the other passenger will alight because they really didn’t talk much about personal details. He worries that Minhyun will know where he lives, if he gets sent home first, but what is there to worry for when they’ve already confronted each other. Judging by the area, Jaehwan will be home in about forty minutes if he will be the first one to be taken home. He leans on the car seat as drowsiness takes over him. He tried to fight it but his eyes fluttered at the calming effect of the dawn. </p><p>Minhyun dares before Jaehwan finally falls asleep, curious. “Are you still scared even after a few months?”</p><p>Jaehwan gives a blunt answer while his eyes are still closed. “Hell, yes. I’m scared for myself because it felt so real. You... doing this a lot of times has honed you into doing well into faking everything. On our fifth day, I don't even know what the boundaries were anymore." Jaehwan huffs. "God, I’m tired. I want to sleep on a big bed. I want to puke. I want to drink again and deny that this ever happened.” </p><p>“We’re almost at my home.” Minhyun starts, not knowing if Jaehwan gets the implication of his statement so he clarifies it. “You can stay if you want. You can sleep on my big bed. You can puke on my sink. And… I have wine if you’d like to drink more but please don’t deny this, that ‘us’ happened.”</p><p>Jaehwan opens his eyes, bewildered by the things Minhyun said. Somehow, it tickles his brain that Minhyun is saying these things while wearing a taco costume, but then again, who is he to speak.</p><p>“I am still mad you ghosted me. And hearing your side made me realize I shouldn’t have been. It was in the contract after all. But you see, I was also scared--scared that I wouldn’t be able to find someone like you anywhere else, something as real as us; scared that what I felt during our time was just my illusions of you; and scared that the moments that we shared were not really something you cherish because for me, it was the most unforgettable one I’ve had, no matter how bad that sounds now that I’m saying it out loud.” Minhyun wanted to smile but decided against it. </p><p>As the car stops in front of an apartment, Jaehwan says to the driver, “Please cut my trip short, I’ll be alighting here.”</p><p>Both of them exit the car and head up to Minhyun’s floor. </p><p>They kissed immediately after going into the room, breathless and beat. The kiss was sloppy but it was sure. After removing their costumes, Minhyun pulls him to the bed to allow them to rest, shower long-forgotten.</p><p>Minhyun whispers something in Jaehwan's ear. “Don’t disappear on me anymore.”</p><p>“If you let me stay, I won’t.”</p><hr/><p>They wake up at noon, limbs tangled with each other. Jaehwan is thankful he didn’t plan anything for the day (except maybe going to mass he’ll surely miss now because he can’t get out from Minhyun’s embrace).</p><p>Not planning, after all, leads to beautiful discoveries such as this.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I will publish the back story of this fic maybe in January lol when the semester's over. But the hope is to just narrate their daily dates, from Monday to Sunday, as inspired by the Japanese movie 7 days.</p><p>Comments are highly appreciated! No need to assess the whole story, just let me know how you felt while reading hehe thank u</p></blockquote></div></div>
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